The PC is Reborn

You may have thought that the big desktop computer with the bulky beige box had disappeared completely but that’s not the case, it’s just had a significant facelift. With the wave of slim, sleek tablets and notebooks on the market today, the PC of old is unrecognisable

PCs are going through a transformation towards slimmer designs and touch screens. Customers are leading that push and demanding devices that are ideally suited to our home and work life. Features like Intel’s Wireless Display – or Wi-Di also mean that you can stream videos, photos or apps to your home theatre system with just a few clicks.

More and more people across Asia are rethinking what they know about PCs. Research firm IDC shows that the number of desktop PCs bought by consumers in [in Indonesia] 2013 grew by 22 per cent compared with 2012. In Malaysia people the number was 14 per cent more and Vietnam grew by 17 per cent over the same time. Australia saw a five per cent rise in sales for consumer desktop PCs signalling that interest is growing.

Think back ten years ago and the home computer took up an entire desk or corner of the home office. Some new home PCs are so small – they take up the same amount of space as a CD case. Others can hang on the back of a TV, sit on the kitchen bench or be purposefully designed to double as the home multimedia and entertainment hub.

There is a bigger variety of PCs available than ever before, across a range of different prices including cheaper desktops, which come with an Intel Celeron or Pentium processor inside. These entry-level computers are great for students who need to study, or for using at home to watch a movie, browse social media or even store photos.

All in One device are a great choice and if you buy a portable model they can be moved around the home, or even hung on the wall. Another popular alternative is the Intel Next Unit of Computing kit, known as NUC, which allows you to build your own mini-computer.

The traditional PC used to live in the home office or the corner of the lounge room but that’s all changing. To figure out which is the best range of devices for your home, think of what you and your family do in each room. Think outside the box – how could your device help you outside of the lounge room or study?

Ideal for the kitchen, the All in One PC is deceptively slim, don’t let its sleek lines and compact form fool you – it has the features of a complete desktop system. You can browse recipes on the internet and automatically create shopping lists and email them to your family to pick up on the way home.

It doesn’t end there; these devices can do so much more than this. Some models recline and lie completely flat and others feature a built-in battery so you can easily carry them to any room. You can create documents, share photos or watch movies anywhere on the large high definition screen. It also means you can use it to study quietly, work or watch a movie in peace.

Make sure you select an All-in-One with an Intel® Core™ processor to get the most out of your machine. Models that support multi-touch will let you play games together as a whole family – and if you buy a model that lies flat you can turn it into a gaming centre. It’s multi-user, multi-touch computing.

For something really special take a look at the Intel NUC devices, these ultra-compact PCs measure just four-inches square. These computers are ideal for the home entertainment space, acting as a multimedia hub, just tucked below or behind the screen. Think of it this way, anything your old traditional PC can do, the Intel NUC can do and it only takes up four inches of space.

If you’ve always wanted a digital jukebox, or have an extensive collection of movies saved to your hard drive – the NUC is the device for your lounge room. A NUC powered by the 4th generation Intel Core i5 processor comes compete with Intel HD Graphics to ensure a brilliant high definition experience.

But watching blockbuster movies and listening to music is not all you can do with a NUC. You can still browse your social media, check email and if you hook it up to a smart TV with a web cam you’ll be able to video chat with the whole family visible on the screen.

From All-in-One to NUCs and other slim PCs, what was the “desktop PC” has become a range of options, giving you lots of choices for your home PCs.

0

Tablets or smart phone can never be a full replacement of PC, their capabilities are still not matched to traditional PCs.

VIdentity

What’s the price in Pakistan ? and where it is available ?

Ammar

Coming from a country manager of Intel Pakistan really seals the authenticity of this advert.

Adiel

Traditional PC’s will never die unless someone introduces a tablet or a slim device that is as powerful as a PC, those people who need a device just to browse internet, watch videos, listen to music and some other lite tasks like these, they probably wouldn’t need it, but those who want a powerhouse, PC is the only option.
And tablet/laptop users will also never know the satisfaction of assembling your own PC with all the high performance parts of your choice, PC is the King :)

Shahid Saleem

It is not a zero sum game. It is possible to have a desktop, and also a tablet. I certainly use both for the same tasks (reading articles, web pages, using specialised apps for some web sites).

ACtually desktop sales are also down, laptop sales are up. Most people can buy a laptop, keep it well, upgrade the RAM if needed, and it will last them at least five years. You could try to do the same with a desktop but really after five years you’ll have to change the motherboard because newer CPU have different type of socket, and newer RAM has higher speed. So all you get to keep is the storage (hard drive) and whatever other stuff you have (monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc). Comes out the same.

Of course in Pakistan, laptops end up using less power and work better during the outages. Unless you want to spend Rs 20,000 on a good computer UPS and batteries (have to change them every 1-3 years).

Adiel

I also have a laptop with core i7 proc, but a laptop can never be an alternative to a PC when it comes to power and durability, laptop, no matter how expensive it maybe, are just too “naazuk” and you can’t use them like you can use a proper PC, a laptop is no match for a PC.
Secondly a PC can last more than 5 years,but even 5 years are enough, do you think any other device can last for that long? all those tablets or laptops? A PC can easily outlast these gadgets.

I am not saying tablets or laptops are useless, they have their own benefits, I also have a laptop even when I just hate working on a laptop, but its good to have one when one is traveling or when there is a power outage, but tablets or laptops are for casual users who don’t need much computing power, when it comes to that there is simply no alternative to PC.

nabeel

I think my desktop PC is working fine for last 6 years. It is Core 2 Duo machine.

Shahid Saleem

I use core2duo also in my 5+ year old laptop, but I know for a fact that even a 3rd or 2nd generation i5 laptop is way faster for some tasks. Especially when you also take into account that newer laptop = newer GPU.

Muzamil Ismail

Oh dear i think you dont know about gpus , you cant change laptop gpu. But you can put most powerful gpu even in first gen core i processors or even in quad core processor desktop. Laptops are not as powerful and reliable as pc is if you are a gamer or video editor. But you can spend 2 to 3 hundred thousand to get a descent laptop with specs equal to 80 thousand desktop.

Shahid Saleem

I know very well about GPUs I have upgraded them often on my desktops. But the reality is for most people their work is not speeded up by faster GPU AT ALL. Most people need to use tools like World or Excel or Firefox or Chrome or Java (especially in many corporate environments with custom applications).

A better GPU will only help browsers render pages faster and also for technologies like WebGL, but I know from experience that upgrading the processor will help a lot more than upgrading the GPU. On my 2GHz dual core work computer which is many years old everything works 100% to my level (I write software) EXCEPT for the browser, I am faced with browser using 20-30% CPU 100% of the time. Getting more ram or better graphics card will do nothing to help me. Certainly upgrading to SSD will make disk writes faster. But GPU? No effect.

Not everyone does video editing or plays games you know.

Last time I speced it (one month ago) I saw it is very very unlikely that you can put together an i7 system with 16GB of RAM and a good GPU and a good drive (or drives or SSD) for a desktop for under Rs 110 to 120k. The processor alone is between 35 and 40k. Yes, the end result is cheaper than a i7 laptop with the similar specs, but so what? How much extra will you have to spend for the UPS for the desktop? And what about the display? At least 20k for a good one. I know it will cost me at least Rs 16k + cost of two batteries for a good computer UPS from Systek in Lahore — and that is only 1 kVA. Don’t forget to add all that to your desktop’s price.

You cannot ignore the reality of world sales figures. They say desktop sales are down, laptop sales are up. We can debate many things, but actual market figures is not a debatable issue, it’s what computer manufacturers are reporting.

zee

Tablet sales are down and PC sales are up. I always, ALWAYS believed that PCs will not die a painful death and that they will bounce back once every tom dick and harry have their tablet toys. I believe that time’s already come. After a long time, tablet sales are down and PC sales are up. Not by a huge margin of course but this is how momentum builds. Check out the article below to read more about this.

By the way, I wonder what Mr. Naveed has to say about Android TV devices? They can do pretty much everything their intel device can do and probably cost you a whooolllee lot less.

Shahid Saleem

Tablet sales are not going down BECAUSE PC sales are going up. They are not competing for the same market everywhere. Do note that your article is about one market, not the whole world. In the rest of the world, especially developing countries, tablet sales are up and also PC sales are up.